How to build your business website (1 of 5)

  [How to build your business website]( [How to build a business website](     Learn the complete end-to-end process of building a successful website for your business Learn the complete end-to-end process of building a successful website for your business     Hi  The business world has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. In today's business world it's almost impossible to make any sales without a business website.  But how do you build a website from the ground up? In this multi-part series we'll guide you through the complete end-to-end process of building a successful website for your business, from writing up an action plan to securing your very first customer.  This is part 1 of our ultimate guide to building a website email series. In future emails we will cover:  Part 2: Dummies guide to wireframing a website Part 3: How to design your brand identity & How to design a beautiful website Part 4: Our guide to SEO - How to write website content  Now let's jump right in. Hi  The business world has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. In today's business world it's almost impossible to make any sales without a business website.  But how do you build a website from the ground up? In this multi-part series we'll guide you through the complete end-to-end process of building a successful website for your business, from writing up an action plan to securing your very first customer.  This is part 1 of our ultimate guide to building a website email series. In future emails we will cover:  Part 2: Dummies guide to wireframing a website Part 3: How to design your brand identity & How to design a beautiful website Part 4: Our guide to SEO - How to write website content  Now let's jump right in. [A whopping 70%–80% of people research a company before making a purchase or visiting]( Planning your website build This is the point most business owners screw up. They jump right into website design mockups without formulating an action plan first.  To ensure the entire project runs smoothly, you need to start with at least a basic plan. All of the elements of website construction are covered by answering the following 3 questions:  1. What will the website say? What type of questions will your visitors want answered? What is your value proposition?  2. How will the website look? What type of graphics or videos do you need? What will your color scheme be?  3. How will your website get customers? Will you be paying for traffic (search engine marketing), or getting free traffic (search engine optimization) or both?  You should start by answering these questions as simply as possible to get your ideas out of your mind and onto paper. Not only will this help you estimate the timeframe of the project, but it'll also uncover any difficult tasks you should outsource to others.  Setting up your building blocks [There are 3 essential building blocks you'll need in place to make the creation of your website possible.]( Let's go over each of them.  1. Domain name This is your web address. For example, "www.tesla.com." You can see if your domain name is available by searching for it in a free online tool.  If you want to secure your ideal domain name before anyone else does, Name.com is a great choice. Name.com gives you the option of purchasing the domain name alone.  2. Website hosting A website host provides the technology and storage required to make your website visible on the internet. Any images and content you upload onto your website will be stored with your host and not on your computer.  3. Choose a website platform With your domain name and hosting purchased, the next step is to choose a platform to build your site on.  If you purchase a domain before choosing a platform, you can transfer it to your chosen platform in just a few steps. Every web platform provides unique instructions for doing this.  Your choice of platform depends on how complex your business website needs to be, and also your web development capabilities.  There are many website platforms out there with many tutorials on how to build the best one for your business, so [click here for some of our suggestions]( or [post a project to hire a freelancer]( to build one for you. Planning your website build This is the point most business owners screw up. They jump right into website design mockups without formulating an action plan first.  To ensure the entire project runs smoothly, you need to start with at least a basic plan. All of the elements of website construction are covered by answering the following 3 questions:  1. What will the website say? What type of questions will your visitors want answered? What is your value proposition?  2. How will the website look? What type of graphics or videos do you need? What will your color scheme be?  3. How will your website get customers? Will you be paying for traffic (search engine marketing), or getting free traffic (search engine optimization) or both?  You should start by answering these questions as simply as possible to get your ideas out of your mind and onto paper. Not only will this help you estimate the timeframe of the project, but it'll also uncover any difficult tasks you should outsource to others.  Setting up your building blocks [There are 3 essential building blocks you'll need in place to make the creation of your website possible.]( Let's go over each of them.  1. Domain name This is your web address. For example, "www.tesla.com." You can see if your domain name is available by searching for it in a free online tool.  If you want to secure your ideal domain name before anyone else does, Name.com is a great choice. Name.com gives you the option of purchasing the domain name alone.  2. Website hosting A website host provides the technology and storage required to make your website visible on the internet. Any images and content you upload onto your website will be stored with your host and not on your computer.  3. Choose a website platform With your domain name and hosting purchased, the next step is to choose a platform to build your site on.  If you purchase a domain before choosing a platform, you can transfer it to your chosen platform in just a few steps. Every web platform provides unique instructions for doing this.  Your choice of platform depends on how complex your business website needs to be, and also your web development capabilities.  There are many website platforms out there with many tutorials on how to build the best one for your business, so [click here for some of our suggestions]( or [post a project to hire a freelancer]( to build one for you. Setting up a staging site When modifying your website or experimenting with new features, you shouldn't be working on your live website. If something goes wrong, your website could break which will cut off all your traffic while you scramble to get it up and running again.  Instead, you should always work on a duplicate version of your website set up in a separate staging environment. Any changes you make in this staging environment will not effect your live site, and when you're ready, you can push this staging website over to the live environment without interrupting your internet presence.  Social Login for your website 86% of users are inconvenienced by having to create new accounts on websites, so if you're creating a membership website, you should simplify the login process with social login options.  [Social logins allow users to sign up to a new service almost instantly, often with just a single click, rather than having to go through the arduous process of proving their email, a new password and then verifying that email etc.](  And a simplified process = increased conversion.  You should adopt this as habitual UX practice, always aim to simplify every process to a minimal number of steps.  Installing an SSL certificate An SSL (secure socket layers) certificate encrypts all of the information submitted on a website, this includes contact forms, order forms and credit card data.  Because of their respectful handling of user data, Google gives precedence to websites with SSL certificates, so if you want to rank well in Google you must get one.  Setting up and configuring website backups / security firewalls To prevent a security breach from compromising your data and nullifying the hard work you put into making your website, you must protect yourself from cyberattacks.  Keeping your web admin passwords secure It doesn't matter how sophisticated your web security solution is, if your login credentials are weak, it's useless. In fact, according to the 2019 Data Breach Information Report , 80% of security breaches were a result of weak passwords.  To make your web admin portal difficult to hack, your password should follow the following convention: - Have at least 12 characters - Include numbers - Include letters (upper and lower case) Coming up with a password that meets the above criteria isn't that difficult, the real difficulty lies in actually remembering it!  [There's a trick to coming up with a difficult password you will actually remember. Start by thinking of a short fact about your life that naturally includes words, numbers and symbols. The more specific you get, the better.](  Setting up a business email account It's important for you to also create a business email account to represent your business in a prestigious manner.  Next time, we look at the layout or wireframing of your website. Before you start building it out, it's crucial to have a plan, what information to include, which pages do you need and how people will navigate your website.  Stay tuned! Setting up a staging site When modifying your website or experimenting with new features, you shouldn't be working on your live website. If something goes wrong, your website could break which will cut off all your traffic while you scramble to get it up and running again.  Instead, you should always work on a duplicate version of your website set up in a separate staging environment. Any changes you make in this staging environment will not effect your live site, and when you're ready, you can push this staging website over to the live environment without interrupting your internet presence.  Social Login for your website 86% of users are inconvenienced by having to create new accounts on websites, so if you're creating a membership website, you should simplify the login process with social login options.  [Social logins allow users to sign up to a new service almost instantly, often with just a single click, rather than having to go through the arduous process of proving their email, a new password and then verifying that email etc.](  And a simplified process = increased conversion.  You should adopt this as habitual UX practice, always aim to simplify every process to a minimal number of steps.  Installing an SSL certificate An SSL (secure socket layers) certificate encrypts all of the information submitted on a website, this includes contact forms, order forms and credit card data.  Because of their respectful handling of user data, Google gives precedence to websites with SSL certificates, so if you want to rank well in Google you must get one.  Setting up and configuring website backups / security firewalls To prevent a security breach from compromising your data and nullifying the hard work you put into making your website, you must protect yourself from cyberattacks.  Keeping your web admin passwords secure It doesn't matter how sophisticated your web security solution is, if your login credentials are weak, it's useless. In fact, according to the 2019 Data Breach Information Report , 80% of security breaches were a result of weak passwords.  To make your web admin portal difficult to hack, your password should follow the following convention: Have at least 12 characters Include numbers Include letters (upper and lower case) Coming up with a password that meets the above criteria isn't that difficult, the real difficulty lies in actually remembering it!  [There's a trick to coming up with a difficult password you will actually remember. Start by thinking of a short fact about your life that naturally includes words, numbers and symbols. The more specific you get, the better.](  Setting up a business email account It's important for you to also create a business email account to represent your business in a prestigious manner.  Next time, we look at the layout or wireframing of your website. Before you start building it out, it's crucial to have a plan, what information to include, which pages do you need and how people will navigate your website.  Stay tuned!     Need help building your business website? Then hire a website developer from Freelancer!     Need help building your business website? Then hire a website developer from Freelancer!   [Hire a Website Developer](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( [apple store]( [google play]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( [apple store]( [google play](   © 2022 Freelancer Technology Pty Limited. All Rights Reserved. Level 37, Grosvenor Place, 225 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms and Conditions]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [Get Support]( © 2022 Freelancer Technology Pty Limited. All Rights Reserved. Level 37, Grosvenor Place, 225 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms and Conditions]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [Get Support](